by Zary Fekete
A small community of deer took up lodging near the township of Darwin in central Minnesota during the winter months of 2023. The deer, approximately twenty in number, were a part of a larger network of deer which roamed freely throughout the northern Midwest states of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. This particular year, it was reported deer harvesting was down from previous years which is why there were so many more than usual in this particular part of the northern United States.
The Darwin family, as this small network of deer became to be known, struggled throughout the winter months, because the winter of 2023 was the third snowiest winter in Minnesota history, only bettered in snowfall amount by the winter of 1992, the winter featuring the infamous Halloween blizzard which shut down the entirety of the state and caused the deaths, through freeze, of more than 40,000 deer during the seven months of snowfall.
This winter, while heavy in snowfall, was not as cold, and, consequently, the deer have been able to grow and thrive. The Darwin family managed to carve out a small territory near a particular section of woods which served to provide them with a regular ground for foraging. Even though there are coyotes throughout Minnesota, the Darwin family of deer did not lose any family members, and observers believe the key reason for this is the fact that the family was not alone. They were also accompanied, at most moments of every day, by an equally ambitious and thriving network of wild turkey.
Deer, while possessing an intricate ability to smell, do not have particularly sharp eyesight. Turkeys, on the other hand, do. Scientists have determined when a deer community is surrounded by a cloud of turkeys, the turkeys act, in a sense, as a roving, exterior visual sense organ. The deer remain alert through all times of the day to the presence of the turkeys. If the turkeys see some kind of threat, they alert the deer by scampering away. The deer take this as a sign for retreat and they follow in turn.
The Darwin community of deer are but one of thousands of similar communities of cooperating wildlife throughout the northern Midwest. The easy-going nature of comradeship between the turkeys and the deer have inspired more than one Minnesota newspaper reporter to lament the lack of similar friendship between other of living organisms who are otherwise unlike one another but who none-the-less share the same living territory. Like people.
…grew up in Hungary
…has a debut chapbook of short stories out from Alien Buddha Press and a novelette (In the Beginning) out from ELJ Publications.
…enjoys books, podcasts, and long, slow films. Twitter: @ZaryFekete
Emerge Literary Journal 